The instant inventors have long been engaged in the design and production of coverings for fenestration openings. In both their experiences and after an exhaustive search of the literature and trade journals, as Well as the files of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, they determined that no modality of window treatment, relating to gatherable shades, exists that would be capable of gathering (collapsing) and extending (deploying) a shade fabric without the use of a draw cord(s) or fabric rolling means. In order to avoid the use of numerous pulleys and cords, as well as the shape-deforming shade rolling techniques, both methods currently in vogue through out the industry, the inventors developed and filed U.S. patent application, Ser. No. 07/018,189 for a window treatment system known as SMART SHADE.SM. (trademark of the Comfortex Corporation and assigned to Hunter Douglas USA, Inc.). The SMART SHADE.SM. window treatment system consists in a mobile header (sill) element which is used to extend and retract an accordion-type, foldable shade along a pair of rectilinear and curvilinear side tracks that are laterally mounted to fenestration openings. SMART SHADE.SM. is adaptable to both automatic and manual operation and derives its unique characteristics from a combination of factors involving the header-motivated shade collapse and deployment, the stepped and regularized (constrained) motion of the header over the tracks, a complete absence of gathering-deploying pulleys and cables and the maintenance of an extremely close fit between the shade fabric and the fenestration-mounted tracks so as to create within the space formed by the closed or deployed shade and the outside fenestration covering (generally, a glass window or solid door) a still air plenum. To the extent that the track-engaging, movable header system allows the gathering and deployment of a shade, without use of pulleys, cables or shade rollers, its adaptation from the SMART SHADE system is herein employed. Quite uniquely, however, the instant invention transcends SMART SHADE.SM. in that it contemplates the usage of a simple planar fabric, or film material, to be deployed over fenestration openings that are both horizontal as well as vertical, using suspension techniques not found in the present art.
In a most recent study of patents dealing with the background art of the instant invention, three disclosures of note, issuing between May and December 1987, were deemed relevant. Zommers (U.S. Pat. No. 4,665,964) discloses a Foldably Extensible And Collapsible Track-Mounted Shade Device For Skylight-Type Window; Dunbar, (U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,933) discloses a Motor Driven Shade Lowering and Raising Mechanism For Atrium Walls; and Bonacci et al. disclose (U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,598) a Screen Door Assembly.
Precedent to the aforementioned current state-of-the-art patent disclosures were those issued to Whitmore (U.S. Pat. No. 972,422) in 1910, for a Curtain, to Clark (U.S. Pat. No. 3,292,685) in 1966 for a Weatherproof Retractable Wall, and to Chen et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,088,157) in 1978 for a Hood System For Covering An Automatically Operating Machine.
Zommers discloses a device comprising a foldable, extensible and collapsible shade member as well as means for forming corresponding sets of laterally projecting trunnions at spaced intervals along opposing edges of the shade proper. The trunnions of the Zommers disclosure consist in semi-cylindrical projections which are captured in lateral fenestration tracks and are therein motivated by a series of pulleys and cables. Thus, in 1987, a somewhat remarkable work of art nonetheless relies upon the time-honored technique of motivating shade edges, albeit using shade stiffener and trunnion connectors, by use of pulleys and cables. Somewhat similarly, Dunbar discloses a motor driven device for raising and lowering shades, such shades being comprised of a flexible fabric in which stiffening rods have been inserted transverse the direction of opening and closing. The ends of the rods are suspended by hooks that are insertable in a series of eye and capstan devices which are movably captured in a fenestration guide rail. Motivation of the eye-capstans, carrying with them the rods, is by cable and pulley arrangement. In late 1987, Bonacci et al. disclosed a screen curtain assembly for large door openings in which the curtain is raised and lowered by draw pulley-supported ropes which are vertically threaded through rings sewn in the curtain material. Unique to this disclosure was the use of rod-in-pocket partitions which appeared to segment the door cover assembly and in which the bottom or base rod was weighted to form, in effect, a header element. Nonetheless, the Bonacci disclosure teaches the use of draw rope and pulley apparatus.
More relevant to the instant invention was the disclosure of Whitmore in 1910 for a curtain of flexible fabric and which contained therein parallel, transverse batts which were used to stiffen the fabric in its deployed mode. Extensions at the tips of the batts comprised guides which fitted into lateral double-railed tracks that were mounted along the sides of the fenestration opening. The batt extension, equipped in the alternative with rollers, fitted into the dual-flanged tracks and guided the shade as it was drawn over the opening. The Whitmore shade or curtain was rolled from the top of the opening and thus required an elaborate contrivance at the top of the track guide to allow the batt extensions to escape from the track proper and be rolled thereafter on the takeup reel. Whitmore clearly did not conceive of, and therefore not disclose, the continuous single flange track of SMART SHADE.SM. which is captured by, rather than captures, the ends or end guides of the moving shade panel. In the disclosures of both Clark and Chen et al., there is again revealed art that is characteristically a usage of the dual-flanged track, combined with stiffening rods that are extended to fit into capturing tracks, as well as the extensive use of pulleys and cables. Although pulleys and cables have been seen to operate favorably in certain, but limited, applications, the instant inventors hasten to point out that in applications where the deployment or retraction of a planar fabric is directed over both horizontal and vertical fields, pulley systems become extremely complex and, should the plane of travel change more than once, practically impossible. Needless to say, a dual flanged track, to provide the curvilinear groove, possesses inner and outer rails (flanges) of differing lengths and thus, were one to employ such a device, it would be necessary to fabricate and install separate track flanges in order to acquire the two radii of curvature. In window treatment systems, both the cable-pulley system and the plural flange/rail device become extremely complicated, costly and difficult to install and maintain.
The instant invention, hereinafter disclosed, obviates the aforementioned problems by eliminating the more onerous techniques and apparatus which have been heretofore used in the art. As will become apparent from the following descriptions, the shade and the machinery/method for its flawless manufacture shall have significant impact on the field.
In order to fully appreciate the method and machinery for the manufacture of the instant invention, the reader is referred to a previously discussed patent issued to Bonacci et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,598, which issued on Dec. 15, 1987. The instant inventors desire to point out that, in this disclosure, one observes the current state of the art in the joining of a fabric (a panel or panels) to the transverse supporting rod structure. Essentially, Bonacci overlaps the trailing edge of one panel with the leading edge of another and, proximate the panel margins, sews two parallel stitches which form a pocket into which the rod or supporting member is inserted. As commonly practiced in the industry, when a continuous fabric or netting is used, being drawn off a continuous roll, supporting structures such as rods may be laid down on the fabric and glued or sewn thereto. Another technique, evident from the Bonacci art would be to simply gather a small portion of the fabric about the rod, catch the rod therein and stitch or sew at the contacting, retroverting surfaces of the fabric that come together around the rod. Machinery for performing these tasks is well known in the art and, although of immense usefulness, can be seen to have considerable limitation should flaws be detected in the fabric and require removal, before inclusion into a finished product.
Presently, should flawed fabric be detected prior to assembly of a shade or viewable window treatment, the manufacturer has one of two options to effect a cure. The process or manufacture may be allowed to continue until a unit product is formed and that unit product subsequently discarded or retailed (at a lower price) as an imperfect or second; or, the manufacturer may choose to halt the fabrication process, cut the material (thus removing the flawed portion), and rejoin the material, preferably at a rod-fabric juncture. As may be readily apparent, both of these processes (the latter being performed manually), not only entail considerable expense but often give rise to products that do not meet the rigid specifications of those produced by the instant inventors.
In order, therefore, to produce a quality product embodying this new form of window treatment, the instant inventors have devised a method of manufacture that, while producing a quality shade product, ensures that the highest aesthetic quality will be maintained by a subprocess which automatically removes flawed fabric and continues the shade fabrication process without the tedium of physically halting the shade fabrication machine and manually or automatically cutting the fabric.
As the reader will soon note, this disclosure defines a new type of shade fabrication for use with the instant inventors' SMART SHADE.SM. window treatment system which comprises a unique mobile header for retracting and extending the shade fabric. Also, a machine and process for manufacture of the shade proper is also provided that shall prove unique in their nonconformity with the present state of the art as well as their ability to produce a high-quality unit product, devoid of fabric flaws and mechanical imperfections.